Products made in the form of shaped solids, cakes and bars are numerous. Cleansing bars are well known in the art.
Cleansing bars with reduced bar smear are reported in the art. E.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,988,511, Mills, issued Jun. 13, 1961, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a low smearing bar.
Bar smear, also referred to as bar sloth, is the soft solid or mush that forms at the surface of a bar when submerged in water and is regarded by consumers as messy, unattractive, and uneconomical.
Products made in the form of shaped solids, cakes and bars are numerous. E.g., certain high moisture and low smear personal cleansing bars are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,839 Harding, issued Aug. 19, 1986. Harding uses coconut and/or palm kernel oil soap.
One only has to examine a used personal cleansing bars in their bathroom to see that there is still a need for improved cleansing bars with little or no smear.
The formation of rigid, soap curd fibers of sodium laurate is reported by L. Marton et al. in a 1940 Journal of American Chemical Society (Vol. 63, pp. 1990-1993). The report does not teach a utility for the soap curd. Shaped solids, as defined herein, are not disclosed by Marton et al.
Japanese Pat. J5 7030-798, Jul. 30, 1980, discloses transparent solid framed or molded soap bar in which fatty acids constituting the soap component are myristic, palmitic, and stearic acids. A transparent soap is described in which at least 90 wt. % of the fatty acids which constitute the soap component are myristic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid. The product is reported as a transparent, solid soap having good frothing and solidifying properties, good storage stability, and a low irritant effect on human skin. The process and transparent bar soap composition exemplified in Jap. J5 7030-798 do not appear to contain synthetic surfactant.
It is also difficult to produce firm, non-sticky bars that contain relatively high levels (15-40%) of moisture (especially in the presence of most synthetic surfactants), hygroscopic surfactants and/or higher levels of non-solids and soft solids, such as water-soluble polyols and hydrocarbon greases.